Blog Archive
-
▼
2010
(1601)
-
▼
September
(413)
- Almost half of HIV-positive gay men unaware, US st...
- Anti-gay pastor Eddie Long vows to 'fight' gay sex...
- Humphrey Bogart slept with 1,000 women out fear he...
- Adam Levine, lead singer of Maroon 5 says that Jak...
- Activist creates YouTube channel for the gay cause
- Fede Gonzalez: From Size To Definition
- Zac Compton: Intensive Dips
- With Ed Miliband as Labour leader, two major parti...
- Archbishop of Canterbury: Gay bishops are fine, so...
- Brian Paddick won't run for London mayor
- updated: Councillor accused of gay slur apologises
- £5 billion marriage equality figure was calculated...
- 1.5% figure is wrong, says gay website with 2.2 mi...
- HIV quangos face the axe, while EHRC is 'at risk'
- Ken Livingstone backed by Labour to become London ...
- Gay men achieve world's longest kiss
- Teenager jailed for extorting £87,000 in gay chatl...
- Peter Tatchell: Tide is turning on gay marriage
- Polish equality minister 'outs gay man on television'
- Florida ends ban on gays and lesbians adopting
- First national survey finds 1.5 per cent of adults...
- Brian Paddick: My marriage is 'downgraded' in Britain
- Gay Lib Dem David Laws 'won't return to government'
- Lesbian feminist writer Jill Johnston dies aged 81
- Lib Dem minister Lynne Featherstone affirms coalit...
- Tory councillor and Lib Dem council leader in 'gay...
- Video: Senators block vote on repeal of 'Don't Ask...
- Liberal Democrats back marriage equality for gay c...
- Eleven gay rights activists arrested for protest i...
- London's gay art festival GFEST announces programme
- Senate to vote on out gay soldiers
- Update: Stonewall boss Ben Summerskill argued that...
- A blast from the past
- Pictures, Videos, Articles, Wallpapers,we've got i...
- Jeff G., Jason T. Gary, Eric, Nick, and more...
- Ray takes us for a ride
- AAG Heroes 2
- Cricketer Jimmy Anderson poses naked for gay magazine
- Gay German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has ...
- Ben Summerskill: Stonewall not fighting for gay ma...
- Russian gay campaigners to protest against homopho...
- AA Gill nominated for Stonewall's 'Bigot of the Ye...
- London's gay art festival GFEST announces programme
- Lady Gaga to join gay rights protest
- Stephen Fry says he's '90 per cent gay'
- Gay rights activist Nikolai Alekseev 'kidnapped an...
- Hawaiian Hunk Paul Brumble
- installment of Text
- Jakub Stefano: Big Flexing
- Joshua Stevenson In Action
- Alan Valdez: Wet Poser and his car
- AAG: The Boys of Summer
- Marcel & Humberto Show Off
- Ryan Phillippe Sighting
- New AAG Model: Patrick
- Charley Montreuil: Road to Competitions
- The World of John Falocco
- Pope beatifies Cardinal Newman on final day of sta...
- Montana Republicans want to make homosexuality and...
- 20,000 protest over Pope Benedict XVI's views on h...
- Sacha Baron Cohen to play Freddie Mercury in film
- Our leaders must question the Pope's teachings in ...
- California waiter 'stabbed for being gay'
- Stonewall launches YouTube channel
- Shane Giese Back With: Bigger, Harder, Stronger
- Russian Beauty Anatoli
- Russian gay activist Nikolai Alekseev 'applying fo...
- Half-naked male models greet Pope's visit to Twick...
- Gay Nigerian asylum seeker faces deportation
- George Michael cancels bail application
- Clare Balding wins complaint against 'dyke on a bi...
- Randy Blue Update: forex of the site
- Tyler Sarry: Winning Top Model
- Super Cutie Andruw Barnes
- The fantasy of Dan Skinner
- Jakub Stefano: Relaxing in the Sun
- Jackson & Trent
- This Is Pat!
- Paul Tornabene: Two Highlights
- The World of Martin Ryter
- Buff Taylor Lautner Talks New Moon
- Tyler Garceau Poses
- Garbage Man turned Stunning Male Model: Jeff Tomsik
- Beautiful and Stunning: Allen Clippinger
- The muscle god: Ivan Scannell
- Arthur Sales by Greg Vaughan
- The sexiest thing you’ll find on YouTube
- Timoteo Jock Strap Party
- If looks could kill: Jordan R. Legault
- A true man’s man: Raphael Hildebrand
- Players by Rick Day
- The New Calvin Klein Hunk
- Tyler Lough in Undergear
- Beautiful Muscular Physique: Tyler Davin
- Richard Strikes is like a boxer
- Patrick L: Hockey Player & Weight Lifter
- Bobby Campo: The Wonderful Horror-Hunk
- Alan Caldwell
- Russ Schiess
- Face the Day!
-
▼
September
(413)
Monday, September 20, 2010
Our leaders must question the Pope's teachings in person
While many in the UK are angry at the Pope's poor record on gay rights and outrageous statements on HIV prevention, our political leaders appear to be showing him undue reverence.
This publication believes that they have a golden opportunity to argue that the Vatican must adapt and respond to the changing beliefs and social identities of its 1.1 billion believers.
Anger over the visit has come from many quarters – gay groups, health charities, child abuse survivors and feminists – while the average British taxpayer appears to have concerns over why the visit should be funded partly by the state.
Celebrities are signing angry letters and thousands of people will march through London tomorrow
Although many Catholics do not agree with the Pope's visit, he remains their spiritual leader and a degree of respect is polite. PinkNews.co.uk believes in religious freedom, so long as it does not present a barrier to the rights of others. But the voices of those who attack the Pope's teachings are too many to ignore.
This week, well-regarded charities such as the National AIDS Trust and the Family Planning Association voiced concerns that the Pope's teachings put the lives of the vulnerable in danger and those teachings must be robustly criticised.
The most controversial of his statements have been on LGBT people, condoms and HIV.
This spiritual leader of one billion active and lapsed Catholics tells his followers that condoms "aggravate" rates of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and that trans people and marriage equality are as big a threat to the future of humanity as climate change and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest.
On Sunday, the Pope will beatify Cardinal John Henry Newman, a man believed by many to have been in a platonic gay relationship. The beatification will take place in a Mass which may well attack non-"traditional" forms of sexuality, yet the man elevated to sainthood lived with and loved another man.
A recent survey suggested that the majority of British Catholics do not adhere to the strict Papal teachings on sexuality but it is crude to suggest the church should just "get with the times". It doesn't work like that. Ancient, lumbering organisations such as this always take far longer to adapt new outlooks than their followers do.
That's not to say criticism is futile. The Pope met with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg yesterday and is due to meet prime minister David Cameron tomorrow. They should raise concerns about the teachings which have caused pain to so many. This is a golden opportunity to challenge a man considered to be infallible by some, but as the embodiment of evil by others.
They must not fear the loss of the religious vote and actually stand up for what they claim they believe; in the rights of women, the right to use contraception, to actively fight the spread of HIV and AIDS, that homosexuality is not a sin and that same-sex couples deserve to have their relationships recognised by the state.
If they do not, then they are doing a disservice to our community in order not to offend the minority of Catholics who continue to believe the discriminatory teachings of the Pope.